The reputed boss of what’s left of the once-powerful Buffalo mafia, east coast mob elder-statesman, Leonard (The Calzone) Falzone, died of natural causes this week at 81 years old and after a decade as the alleged leader of the continuously-shrinking Maggadino crime family in western New York. According to the FBI, Falzone assumed command of the Family in 2006 from Joseph (Big Joe) Todaro, Jr., who voluntarily stepped down and retired to focus on his legitimate pizza and chicken-wing empire.
A convicted felon, the suave, well-liked, outgoing, but feared Falzone, per federal court records, had previously served as the organization’s consigliere beginning in 1987 under Todaro’s dad and predecessor as don, Joseph (Lead Pipe Joe) Todaro. Lead Pipe Joe died peacefully in 2012. Falzone was considered a suspect in more than one mob murder conspiracy and handled overseeing all loansharking for the Maggadinos from the 1970s into the 1990s.
For decades, Falzone was a power broker in local labor union affairs, working out of Local 210 in the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), administering the Local’s pension fund. He was convicted of federal racketeering and loansharking in 1994 and did five years in prison, getting released in July 1999. One witness against Falzone at his trial told jurors of having to seek Falzone’s permission in the 1980s in order to set up a gambling and juice-loan business on the west coast in Las Vegas, where the Buffalo mob operated a crew.
The passing of Falzone parallels the fading landscape in the western New York mafia. With Big Joe Todaro in retirement and Falzone’s death, only a few men with serious ties to the area’s mob old guard still exist today. The current status of local gangland figures Russ Carcone, Victor Sansanese, Frank (Butchie Bifocals) BiFulco and Robert (Buffalo Bobby) Panaro is unknown.
Leonard Falzone
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